


Fighting in a cave sucks

by ReptileRuler



Series: PRaZ FebuWhump [4]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Blood, Gen, Impaling, M/M, Pre-Canon, There's a hand grenade involved but it's off-screen, Unconsciousness, could be interpreted as platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:00:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29196465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReptileRuler/pseuds/ReptileRuler
Summary: Elite Purple gets skewered fighting enemy aliens for an exam. But the important thing is that his teammates are alright.Febuwhump 2021 DAY 4: impaling
Relationships: Almighty Tallest Purple/Almighty Tallest Red, The Almighty Tallest/Zim
Series: PRaZ FebuWhump [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2137614
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21
Collections: febuwhump 2021





	Fighting in a cave sucks

**Author's Note:**

> ngl I think this one's a bit dry

The spike entered slightly off-center through his abdomen, and pinned him to the rocky wall behind him. 

Fighting enemies in a cave sucked. Especially if the enemies were a species that could  _ shoot spikes from their bodies. _

_ “Purple!” _

That could have been either Zim or Red screaming. He couldn’t tell over a ringing in his hearing canals. Fluids had started leaking through his uniform, covering his shaking hands and dripping down his thigh. The floor spun. 

Something bright lit up the cavern - an explosion, maybe? That  _ had  _ to be Zim. Red would never be stupid enough to set off explosive in a cave while they were all still in there. In a fit of hysteria, the thought made Purple shake with giggles. Would he die from blood loss or from Zim’s idiocy? Both felt like legitimate possibilities at this point. 

He was aware that his PAK would knock him out soon. It would be nice to know that his PAK legs wouldn’t activate and skewer his team mates as it scrambled to find a safe spot to regenerate, but hey, you can’t have anything in this world, and Red and Zim should have enough training to be able to stay away from stray PAK legs.  _ Well, at least Red did. _

Blurry movements, something holding his cheek. Zim? Red? He slumped towards the presence, unaware of someone talking to him. 

Comforting clicks and chirps. A soothing scent mixed with the stench of gunpowder and blood. 

His eyes slipped closed just as he felt himself be manhandled into laying on his side. 

When Purple woke up, he was no longer impaled by a spike. His side burned and sent sparks of pain through him every time he inhaled, though, so that wasn’t great.

He blinked slowly, trying to look around. This was the same cave as they’d fought in, he was pretty sure, but the enemy aliens were gone, and so were their corpses. 

“What…?”

“Oh Voids, thank Irk you're awake!”

“Red?” He blinked a few more times, finally feeling reality come into focus. Red stepped into view and took his head between his hands. His head was tilted to the side so that he could see the ceiling, and his team mate’s big, ruby eyes. Thumbs stroked his cheeks gently and Red offered a wide grin.

“I’m glad you’re okay”, he said.

“... Okay?!” Purple frowned. His hand flew up to press against the puncture wound, and met the rough fabric of Irken bandages. “I was skewered to the wall! A deadly spike  _ went through my body!  _ You’re ‘glad I’m okay’? I’m  _ not okay,  _ in fact, I’m in quite a lot of pain, so-”

Red laughed loudly, almost wetly, and slumped until his forehead bumped into Purple’s. 

“Sorry”, he said, “Sorry, sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I was just worried about you.”

Purple huffed, but the contact made his indignation melt away. 

They probably shouldn’t admit that they  _ worried  _ about each other, lest someone thought they were defective, but there was no one else here and-

Wait.

“Where’s Zim?” he asked, hesitantly leaning away from Red’s touch. The cave was empty, and even though he now had enough strength to lift his head and look around, he saw no sign of the little one.

“He’s outside burning enemy corpses”, Red huffed, “said they stank too much.”

“Oh.”

Distantly, the sound of his insane laughter could be heard. 

Red huffed and scuffled about a bit, busying himself with packing up his first aid kit and returning it to his PAK.

“We’re not gonna get a pass on this exam. Not because of you, by the way”, he added, “but because Zim was dumb enough to throw a hand grenade inside the cave.”

“Are you guys okay?” Purple asked. He remembered the explosion going off, but he hadn’t been lucid enough to notice if his teammates were injured in the fire.

“Yeah. By some miracle. But you should worry more about yourself.”

The reprimand hardly faced him. He didn’t feel like moving any time soon, but he was awake, and healing, so there was really no point in worrying about himself. Instead of arguing though, he relaxed as good as he could into the rocky cave floor. Red offered him a canteen of liquid, and then helped him drink. It tasted artificially sweet, but soothed his food-tube and helped him regain some energy.

He’d managed to sit up when Zim returned, smelling of smoke and ashes. The little one shrieked and squealed and made all sorts of annoying noises when he saw that Purple was awake. Too much energy for such a small form. Especially since they’d battled for their lives just a couple hours earlier. 

But Purple let him be, let Zim bump their foreheads together and let him slap his face with his antennae until he was  _ certain _ that Purple was okay and not hiding any pain or other side effects.

Shame about the exam. It didn’t matter, though. An exam could be retaken. 

His teammates couldn’t be replaced. 


End file.
